WWPH WRITES ISSUE 96-NATIONAL POETRY MONTH SPECIAL
WWPH Writes 96… celebrates National Poetry Month with the work of poets we love: Steven Leyva, Holly Karapetkova, and Tonee Mae Moll. All three are our press-mates. Steven and Holly have must-read new poetry collections just published with other notable small presses, and Tonee Mae Moll has a new edition of her WWPH award-winning collection, You Cannot Save Here, now available.
As a small literary press, we also love indie bookstores. Today, Saturday, April 26th, is a day to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day.
And now is your opportunity to be published by your Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Our book-length manuscript contests open May 1! We are seeking fiction (short story collections or novels), poetry, or poetry in translation. We are committed to publishing writers who represent the diverse and vibrant communities of the DMV. Details below.
Read on!
Caroline Bock & Jona Colson
co-presidents/editors
Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 2 Bridges Review, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, Vinyl, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook, which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers’ Publishing House. His second book of poems, The Opposite of Cruelty, is now available from Blair Publishing (March 2025). Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an associate professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design. More about Steven here.
“Gates/Unsignified” is reprinted from The Opposite of Cruelty, which is now available for purchase here. 
Gates / Unsignified
*i*** has no true synonyms. So
it leaves each mouth irreplaceable
like a tooth. Perhaps there are still
mysteries, but how will
they be known? Your parents
fill out forms, and that name
is yours. Friends pull from fog
stolen sobriquets that are your way
to skip out of those forms. Still: *i***.
Holly Karapetkova is Poet Laureate Emerita of Arlington, Virginia. Her most recent book, Dear Empire, won the Barry Spacks Poetry Prize from Gunpowder Press. More about Holly here.
These poems are reprinted from her award-winning collection, Dear Empire, which is available for purchase here.
Dear America
I called and no one answered.
I left voice messages,
sent texts and emails
lost in the ether.
Tell me things aren’t
as bad as they seem.
Tell me that’s not
a bullwhip in your back pocket,
smallpox on your hands,
fossil fuels foaming
between your teeth.
Tell me when la migra
pounds on the door,
when blue lights flash
beneath an overpass
and drones swarm the sky
like birds of prey
they leave no bodies behind.
Tell me only the map
is darkening,
only the sun passing
behind a cloud.
Join Holly Karapetkova and Steven Leyva for a reading and discussion on THURSDAY, MAY 29th at 7 pm at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda. Free and open to all. Please, RSVP here.
Dr. Tonee Mae Moll is a queer and trans writer and educator. Her debut memoir, Out of Step, won the 2018 Lambda Literary Award and was featured that year on the American Library Association’s annual list of notable LGBTQ+ books. Tonee Mae’s poetry has also received the Adele V. Holden award for creative excellence and the Bill Knott Poetry Prize. She is, most notably, a Gemini. More about Tonee Mae here.
You Cannot Save Here won the Jean Feldman Poetry Award from the Washington Writers’ Publishing House. This new edition has been revised to reflect her name and identity, and we are thrilled to share it with all. For more about Tonee Mae, her craft, her writing advice, and her revelations about writing since her transition, read on to her WWPH Interview here.
Available everywhere books are sold. However, support your WWPH and purchase your copy here. 
Dr. Tonee Mae Moll is also featured in the new anthology SUPER GAY POEMS. Meet her at Lost City Books in Washington, DC, on Monday, June 2, at 7 pm. Free and open to all. More info here.
YOU CANNOT SAVE HERE
In the end
the good news is the end
ss not The End—not in the sense
of the gospel, but the spirit
ff second growth
Over the edge
bees are blessed with another chance
pirouetting over our fossiled progress
honeycombing remains of skeletal steel
triumphant on grass-fractured boulevards
WWPH NEWS
News from our friends at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore….The Pratt Hackerman Writer in Residence Program offers a unique opportunity for writers to engage with the community through creative projects, workshops, and public events. For the 2026 residency, we are seeking a poet to lead monthly programming and contribute to the Library’s vibrant cultural landscape. This residency opportunity is open to Maryland-based poets aged 21 and above. The stipend is $30,000.The application deadline is May 1, 2025; however, submissions will be capped at 100. If you wish to apply, please do so promptly to ensure we are able to accept your entry. You can find more information on the Pratt Writer in Residence Proposals webpage.
CAPITAL QUEER: A PRIDE CELEBRATION FROM WASHINGTON WRITERS’ PUBLISHING is our first-ever pocket-size chapbook/anthology and we are so excited! Publication date is May 27th.
Join us on Monday, June 30th from 7-10 pm at Rhizome DC for our first WWPH Literary Salon of 2025. Our WWPH Literary Salon: PRIDE Edition will be a three-hour fete of creative writing workshops, readings, and free-wheeling discussion–free and open to all. An RSVP is required (space is limited to 50- so, sign up now). Co-editors Jona Colson and Caroline Bock will host the event, which will feature several writers from CAPITAL QUEER including DR. TONEE MAE MOLL.
RSVP here for our WWPH Literary Salon: PRIDE Edition, which is made possible by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.
Stop by our table at one of these upcoming events. Learn more about publishing with us…our book-length manuscript contests open on May 1, and we are eager to read your poetry, fiction (novel or short story collection), and poetry in translation.
INSIDER NEWS… if you are considering submitting your book-length manuscript to WWPH, check out our guidelines and FAQs (new for 2025!) here.
In honor of National Poetry Month find our Jean Feldman Award-winning poetry collections everywhere books are sold! Here is a link to our bookshop.org affiliate page:
WWPH WRITES is open for submissions! We now pay $25.00 for poetry (up to 3 poems) and prose (up to 1,000 words of fiction or creative nonfiction–and we only have 5 open issues/slots for prose remaining for 2025!). Free to submit! More details at our Submittable page here.
SOLIDARITY, all! We’re grateful you are part of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House community!
Keep reading WWPH Writes for upcoming news on our anthologies…
CAPITAL QUEER: A PRIDE CELEBRATION and AMERICA’S FUTURE: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow.